Changing of the Zords
'''Changing of the Zords '''is a three-part episode in season 3 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It continues Kimberly and Katherine's story arc. This features the debut of the Shogun Zords as well as it's combo mode, Shogun Megazord. The 9th, 10th and 11th Zeo Serial Shorts aired before a later airing of each three parts. Synopsis Finster has discovered the location of the lost Ancient Zords! In order to bring them to life for their own evil purposes, Rita & Zedd will need some unwilling assistance from the Power Rangers. First, while the Tengas distract the teens from a relaxing day at the beach, Rita's enthralled pawn Katherine steals the Pink Ranger's Power Coin! With it, she'll be able to sneak aboard the Falconzord and ambush the White Ranger when Ninjor needs his help most, facing a giant Goldar! Will our heroes fall for this plot, and can Kimberly survive for long with her Coin in the hands of evil? Plot Part 1 Kat seems to be bonding with Kimberly and Aisha as they just finished a shopping spree at the mall, but it’s clearly a façade as she’s still under Rita’s spell, and when she sees Tommy meet up with Kimberly, she shows jealousy at the two’s relationship. On the Moon Palace, Finster reveals that he finally deciphered the Scrolls of Zordina, and it has revealed the location of some dormant Ancient Zords. While Goldar doesn’t see the point of all of it, Finster explains that if he could combine the technology with one of the Ranger’s Ninja Zords, he could bring the Zords to life. Zedd and Rita like this as with their own Zords, they can destroy the Power Rangers. Kimberly invites Kat to the beach with the others, but she declines until Tommy offers her the same suggestion. Meanwhile, Finster takes Squatt and Baboo to the location of the dormant Zords, and the latter finds the foot of one by complete accident covered in vines. At the beach, Bulk and Skull are on duty at the pool and see what looks to be kids drowning, but it turns out to be a trick by the kids. Rita approaches Kat and tells her that she needs her to steal one of the Ranger’s Power Coin without getting caught, to which Kat obeys. While Kimberly and Aisha run off to the lake, Kat reluctantly goes with them as there are too many people around to steal a Power Coin, but Rito suggests they create a diversion. Liking that idea, Zedd summons the Tenga Warriors down to the beach and the citizens run away from them, except for Kat who walks away in the commotion. The Rangers go into their Ninja Ranger mode to fight the Tenga’s, but during the fight, Kat goes into Kimberly’s backpack and takes her Pink Crane Power Coin, with her jealousy over the latter’s relationship with Tommy fueling her decision. However, Bulk and Skull escort her away before she can take Aisha’s Power Coin, only for her to teleport away without them noticing. Suddenly, Kimberly starts to feel weak as her connection to the Power Coin is broken, but Tommy comes to her rescue as the Tenga’s retreat. Demorphing, the Rangers check on Kimberly, who is more concerned where Kat went. Kat presents Rita the Pink Power Coin, and the latter and Lord Zedd decide to capture the Falconzord to render the Rangers defenseless, and use its power to charge up the Ancient Zords. Back on the beach, Alpha 5 informs the Rangers that Goldar and the Tenga Warriors are in the park, but Kimberly still feels weak despite claiming to feel alright. However, when they go to get their stuff, Kimberly finds that her Power Coin is gone, and Billy realizes that her growing weakness is a result of some sort of energy drain. When Tommy tells Zordon what has happened, the latter realized that someone evil took Kimberly’s Power Coin and tells the others to use their own Power Coins to recharge her so she’ll be at least strong enough to teleport back to the Command Center. While the others stay and do so, Tommy morphs to fight Goldar and is joined by Ninjor for assistance. Unknown to them, Rita gives Kat the stolen Power Coin and orders her to steal the Falconzord, to which the latter obeys. While Tommy and Ninjor best the Tenga’s, Goldar grows giant sized, forcing the two to summon the Falconzord and grow giant sized respectively. Before Tommy can attack, Kat teleports into the Zord with the Power Coin, knocks out Tommy, and teleports him out as Lord Zedd claims the Zord and puts it in a bird cage. Meanwhile, Goldar bests Ninjor, shrinking him down to human size, while Lord Zedd decides to use the latter as the power source of the dormant Zords. As Ninjor is captured by Lord Zedd, Goldar retreats, leaving Tommy no choice but to return to the Command Center in defeat, but still sure that the Power Rangers will still win. On the Moon Palace, the villains celebrate their victory and the supposed defeat of the Power Rangers, but while Ninjor refuses to help Lord Zedd, the latter said he has no choice as Finster siphons off his energy. At the Command Center, Zordon explains to the Rangers that when Ninjor gave them the Ninja Power Coins, he linked them to their natural human energy, and when Kimberly’s Power Coin was taken, it started to affect her body. While the Rangers start to wonder what Lord Zedd is up to, Zordon fears that the latter found the lost Ancient Zords of Zordonia, and all of this is to create an unstoppable army of Evil Zords. And as Rocky points out, they’re powerless to stop them now that the Ninja Zords are out of commission due to the Falconzord's abduction. Kimberly faints due to the energy drain, and Zordon reveals that the only way to save her is to reclaim her Power Coin because if not, she will not survive. Meanwhile, Kat has the Pink Power Coin in her hands, declaring that Kimberly will be out of the picture and she will have Tommy to herself as she rips up a photo of the two. Part 2 Back at the Command Center, Billy scans the unconscious Kimberly and reveals that she’s in a deep sleep due to her body growing very weak at the loss of her Power Coin. Alpha is dismayed over this, and Tommy refuses to lose Kimberly as Zordon tells the former to look for an alternate power source to match the Power Coin's. In addition, Adam and Rocky express concern about their inactive Ninja Zords now that the Falconzord is in Lord Zedd’s control, along with Billy worrying about the fact Ninjor will be a power source for the Ancient Zords. On the Moon Palace, Lord Zedd taunts the Rangers, and relishes that everything is going his way for once, but the only thing missing is the pilots for his new Zords. Rito accidentally suggest the Power Rangers, but Zedd likes that idea as who better to pilot the new Zords than the Rangers themselves. He plans to use Kimberly as leverage so it would force the Rangers into piloting the Ancient Zords no matter what. At the Juice Bar, Tommy vents his frustrations on a punching bag, but while Adam and Rocky try to calm him down, the former recalls how Lord Zedd took away his Green Ranger powers and that he thought it was the end of everything. Kat arrives and asks where Kimberly is, but they lie and says the latter is busy, and Tommy declines her invitation for lunch. When Rita asks Zedd how he will use Kimberly’s condition to their advantage, he creates Inciserator (though called Fangenstein by Lord Zedd) in response. Meanwhile, Alpha struggles to find a substitute power source for Kimberly, when the alarm goes off in Inciserator appearance. The Rangers (minus Kimberly) are informed by this, and they morph to stop him. However, Inciserator proves to be more of a challenge than expected, while Lord Zedd tells Rita to use Kat as bait to lure Kimberly out. Kimberly starts to wake up and sees her friends fighting Inciserator, but another alarm goes off and she sees Tenga Warriors surrounding Kat. Despite Zordon telling Kimberly to let the others get to Kat after taking out Inciserator and not to exert what little power she has left, Kimberly decides to go out despite the risks. Kimberly has Alpha teleport her to Kat’s location in her Ninja Ranger mode and faces off against the Tenga’s alone. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Stone is disappointed by Bulk and Skull’s lake incident, and finds it weird to face off against a monster every week. While Skull claims that it’s true, Stone doesn’t buy it, and gives the two 24 hours to produce a monster he himself he can see or else they're off the Junior Police. Meanwhile, with what little power she has, Kimberly gets overwhelmed by the Tenga’s and collapses, to which Kat expresses rare concern until the spell takes affect again. With Kimberly demorphed and unconscious, Goldar takes her to the Moon Palace, while Inciserator takes his leave. The Rangers teleport back to the Command Center as Bulk and Skull take Stone around the park, hoping to see a monster. However, Stone remains unconvinced. At the Command Center, the Rangers and Zordon realize that they were tricked by Lord Zedd, but Aisha is confused why he wants Kimberly as he already has her Power Coin. Then, Alpha notices that Lord Zedd has begun the power infusion to the Ancient Zords, while the man himself tells Rita and Finster that he’s draining the rest of Kimberly’s powers so she’ll be useless. But when Rita is still confused as how they’ll get the Rangers to pilot the Ancient Zords, Lord Zedd contacts the Rangers himself, telling them where Kimberly is, and demands that they teleport him to the Command Center. With little choice, they do so, and Lord Zedd and his throne enter the Command Center, with everybody visibly intimidated by his presence and Alpha hiding in fear. Lord Zedd tells the Rangers that if they want Kimberly back, they will become the pilots of his new Ancient Zords and obey his evil commands. While the Rangers struggle on an answer, Lord Zedd demands one as he laughs at their predicament. Part 3 Tommy reluctantly agrees to Lord Zedd’s demands, and the latter says they’ll get the Ancient Zords around the dusk of the day before teleporting back to the Moon Palace. Meanwhile, Kat taunts the unconscious Kimberly while her powers are drained, but the spell momentarily stops as she regrets putting her in this state. Billy tries to locate Kimberly so they can teleport her out without needing to do Zedd’s bidding, while Alpha tries to sever Kimberly’s link to the stolen Power Coin. Billy locates Kimberly in Zedd’s dark dimension, but he can’t simply teleport her out until he and Tommy recall the Portal Com they used when the Green Candle was burning out the Green Ranger powers, and Billy still has it at his house. At the park, Billy gets the Portal Com set so the dimensional door will open to Kimberly’s location, but warns Tommy that it will remain open for a limited time before the latter enters. On the Moon Palace, the villains celebrate until Lord Zedd notices what they are doing, and sends the Tenga’s down to attack. The four remaining Rangers go into Ninja Ranger mode to defend themselves as Tommy enters the dark dimension. Before Tommy can stop the device that’s draining Kimberly’s powers, Lord Zedd arrives to stop him. Tommy morphs, but Lord Zedd taunts the former’s kias, and proves to be a tough opponent as he swats Tommy away and zaps him. Meanwhile, two Tenga’s knock the Portal Com down and kick at it, breaking it before the rest retreat. While Billy begins working on fixing it, an impatient Rita tells Finster to send a monster down to stop them. Adam asks if there’s anyway they can control the Ancient Zords themselves without Lord Zedd’s influence, and Billy said he could if he can connect them to their Power Coins, just as the See Monster arrives. The four Rangers morph into their Ranger forms, but See Monster uses his eyes to emit beams to disorient the Rangers. However, Rocky manages to break through the waves, and the others follow suit. Growing more impatient by the minute, Rita orders Finster to send down the Ancient Zords despite his reluctance. The Ancient Zords arrive to the Ranger and See Monster’s location, the latter teleporting away at the sight, and the Rangers grimly realize that they’ve ran out of time. Rita orders the Rangers to pilot the Ancient Zords and attack Angel Grove, but they give Billy the Power Coins he could reroute the control to them before climbing into the cockpits. Meanwhile, Tommy tosses Saba towards Lord Zedd and breaks his staff, turning it back into a snake and forces him to retreat. Freeing Kimberly from the device, Tommy takes her back to Earth, has Alpha teleport her back to the Command Center, and jumps into the White Ancient Zord’s cockpit. Eventually, Billy succeeds in giving them control of the Ancient Zords, but an undaunted Lord Zedd uses Rita’s staff to grow the See Monster. With their new Zords, the Rangers attack See Monster with Tommy using the White Ancient Zord to inflict damage. Then, they combine their new Zords into their new Megazord, blocking See Monster’s attack and destroying him not long after. Seeing that their big plan has failed, Lord Zedd laments how fun being evil used to be, but Rita reminds him that they still have Ninjor as their captive, and the Pink Power Coin in their possession. Meanwhile, a few kids fly some kites when one with a dragon comes into view of a sleeping Stone, causing him to mistake one for a real monster. As Stone runs off, Bulk decides to play with the mistake so he and Skull can keep their jobs, before returning the kite to the kids and running off. At the Command Center, a recovered Kimberly is gratefully for her friend’s efforts to get her home, but the fact remains that her Power Coin is still in Lord Zedd and Rita’s possession. While Zordon reveals that Alpha has removed her connection to the coin and she can draw power from the others in order to morph, Tommy knows that they must get it back soon along with Ninjor. In addition, the Ninja Zords will remain deactivated until the Falconzord is reclaimed, but Zordon is sure that the Ancient Zords, now renamed the Shogun Zords, will serve them well. Later that day, Tommy and Kimberly walk along the beach as the latter dismayingly realizes that her days as a Power Ranger might be over. However, Tommy reassures her how she comforted him when he lost his Green Ranger powers, and that he’ll be with her always. Cast *Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Mighty Morphin White Ranger) *Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger) *Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger) *Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger) *David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger) *Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger) *Catherine Sutherland as Katherine "Kat" Hillard *Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier *Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch *Gregg Bullock as Lt. Jerome Stone *David Fielding as Zordon (face) *Robert L. Manahan as Zordon (voice) *Sandi Sellner as Alpha 5 *Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice) *Kim Strauss as Ninjor (voice) *Carla Perez as Rita Repulsa *Barbara Goodson as Rita Repulsa (voice) *Ed Neil as Lord Zedd *Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd (voice) and Finster (voice) *Danny Wayne Stallcup as Goldar *Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice) *Bob Papenbrook as Rito Revolto (voice) *Michael J. Sorich as Squatt (voice) *Dave Mallow as Baboo (voice) (as Colin Phillips) *Oliver Page as Insciserator (voice) *Brian Tahash as See Monster (voice) Song *Part 1 and 3: Tenga Bye Bye Errors *Based on the shallowness of the water, Bulk and Skull should have been severely injured when they jumped in. *After the battle against the Tengas at the lake, Adam was wearing a shirt and bandanna despite not wearing them when he entered the water. *In the international soundtrack to the episode, Lord Zedd refers to Inciserator as 'Fangenstein'. *Despite Inciserator proving to be more than a match for the Rangers, he isn't sent up against them again after the initial battle. *Rocky says that earthquakes don't happen in Angel Grove, however numerous earthquakes have been seen to occur since "Day of the Dumpster". *In Part II, the Rangers (minus Kimberly) once again morph in the doorway of the Fitness Centre where they surely would have been seen. *When The Rangers excluding Tommy and Kimberly morph in part 3, they say "We Need Ranger Power, Now!" instead of "It's Morphin Time!". Notes *Kimberly does not appear morphed throughout this story, while Tommy is the only Ranger to appear morphed in Part I. *Ninjor and the Falconzord fall into the hands of Zedd and Rita in this episode which in turn renders the other five Ninjazords inoperable, (but not the Ninja Powers as Zordon had stated would happen if Ninjor was captured in "Ninja Quest"). They would not be used again until "Master Vile and the Metallic Armor". *Part I marks the first time a non-morphed human appears in a Zord cockpit. *Part II uses no Sentai footage. It's also the final episode where Kimberly uses her Ninja Ranger Powers. *First appearance of the Shogunzords which are the first sets of individual warrior zords. *First and only time Ninjor fights giant size in American footage. *In the international versions of this episode, the Shogunzords were referred to as "Ancientzords" in the original airings with Zordon naming the Shogunzords later, this was corrected for later releases (however this causes an error as Zordon names the Shogunzords despite the Rangers already knowing what they're called). **The later release also inserts a line from Zordon stating that Kimberly would share the White Shogunzord with Tommy, something she would never do (although Katherine would share piloting duties with Tommy upon assuming the Pink Ranger powers). *Alpha 5's suit actor is now Donene Kistler, making her the third actress to portray him, including Romy J. Sharf and Sandi Sellner (the fourth if Peta-Maree Rixon from the movie is counted). Richard Steven Horvitz still voices him, however. Donene will continue to be Alpha's suit actor up until "Shift Into Turbo" Part 3. *On the DVDs, Part II and Part III have a "TV-Y7" content indicator and the old "gold coin" Saban logo at the end of the credits, rather than the new CGI "Saban Brands" logo used for nearly all of the DVD episodes. This implies that the prints for these episodes on the DVDs may come from a different source than what else is in the sets. *In Part 2, Alpha 5 repeats the idiom of Rito Revolto calling Lord Zedd by the name "Ed". See Also (Shogun Megazord debut) (Red Shogunzord debut) (The rest of the Shogunzord debuts) (Shogun Megazord combine footage) (Zord battle) Category:Mighty Morphin 3 Category:Episode Category:Multi-Part Episode